The Secretariat-General: a Case Study in Innovation

Abstract

Despite its pivotal role within the European public administration as well as between the European Commission and other institutions (Stevens and Stevens, 2001; Kassim, 2004a; Nugent, 2001; Christiansen, 2001), the Secretariat- General (SG) is still a very under- researched service compared with other Directorates- General. Originally created in 1958 and named Executive Secretariat, this horizontal service was designed to provide administrative support to the College of Commissioners as well as guarantee good coordination among services as well as with other institutional actors. Since the Kinnock reforms, in which the SG was heavily involved, the service considers that its role is ‘to define and design the Commission’s strategic objectives and priorities [ ... ]; to coor­dinate, facilitate, advise and arbitrate; to facilitate the smooth running of the Commission through planning, programming and operation of a modern registry; to act as the Commission’s interface with the other European institutions, national parliaments and non governmental organisations’ (European Commission, 2010).